Residents heed government calls for calm for now

Thirty years on . . . Israeli children, above, play on a destroyed Syrian tank in the Golan Heights. Below, an image said by Israel to be of the camp it bombed. Main photo: AFP/Menahem Kahana

Anxious Syrians hope the Israeli attack was a one-off, reports a Special Correspondent in Damascus.

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in Damascus following the attacks. For a normal working day, traffic in the streets was light. Most people stayed at home watching television, and the message they got was to stay calm.

The Government played down the attack on the Ein Saheb camp, about 15 kilometres south-east of the capital. The two state-run television channels spent much of the afternoon avoiding the topic, by showing programs about flower displays and preparations for yesterday's 30th anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel.

Coverage on the many private Arabic-language satellite channels was extensive, but these relayed the Government's response.

"They say we will keep quiet and protest to the UN Security Council," said one 28-year-old engineer who spent much of his afternoon glued to the television. "They say we could make big demonstrations in the street, but instead will wait."

Most Syrians accepted their Government's call for calm. A 35-year-old librarian said Israel was responding to Saturday's suicide bombing in Haifa and would not necessarily follow the air raid with further violence.

"It was a very big bombing in Haifa. They wanted to make something bigger," he said. "They won't attack again, just this one time. They cannot attack Syria because it would lead to a big war. One time may be OK, but next time, there will be war."

Palestinian sources said the Ein Saheb camp was not a training ground for Islamic Jihad, as the Israeli Government claimed.

The most frequent visitors to the area these days were picnickers from the capital, one Damascus resident suggested. The camp, which had lain unused for about 10 years, was previously a training ground for the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Syria's response to the attack, to request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, was a clear sign that they wanted to talk rather than fight. Thirty years after the start of the war that failed to recapture the Golan Heights, Syria still faces a foe with a much better equipped army.

However their leaders tackle the latest crisis, ordinary Syrians hope it will bring an end to the perpetual state of crisis with their unwelcome neighbour to the south-east.

"Nobody wants a war," the librarian said. "I hope we can finish this problem."